Don’t get burned, keep the brain working over spring break

By Madison Cooper, Opinions Editor|April 2, 2015

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IMAGE / Mr. Darrick J. Puffer

Madison Cooper

Spring break is here, which means fun in the sun and more than a week filled with no school work, staying up late, and sleeping in.

Here are two tips to help you during spring break:

      1. Being tan is cute, being red is not.

If you are traveling to a southern state this spring break, make sure to wear sun screen if you go to the beach or go for a walk out on the town.

Sun burns can cause very extensive and painful burns and blisters and can be highly dangerous as well.

A lot of people think that skin cancer is only caused by spending time in tanning booths, but this is a highly false statement.

Sun burns can cause melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, according to skincancer.org, The Skin Cancer foundation ran a study and learned that 42 percent of people get sunburned at least once a year.

I know that coming back from Florida after spring break and being as pale as you were when you left might be “embarrassing.”

But think of your health and safety. In 40 years, when you are still skin cancer free, you will be thanking the sun screen you put on during spring break 2015.

      1. Your homework does not disappear.

I know that the whole idea of spring break is to get away for a couple of weeks from school and homework.

But the homework that your teachers give out does not go away. Spring break is fun, and I know it is easy to get lost in the idea of the sunshine and late nights, but find time to do your work.

Do not wait until the night before school to do your homework because you will regret it.

If your teacher is kind enough to not give out any homework, continue to study.

The curriculum does not go away, and getting back on track will be very hard if you do not continue to challenge your brain.

Your brain acts like a muscle, and just like your biceps, it needs to be worked out or it will turn to flab.

It only takes 10 to 15 minutes out of the 1,440 minutes in a day to study or do homework.

When you come back to school you will be thankful that you still remember everything from the curriculum and you will get higher test scores than the students who did not study or do any homework at all.

Spring break is here, and there is a way to have it be fun and safe at the same time.

I hope everyone follows these tips and has a great, fun, eventful, and SAFE spring break.